Chapter 3

The Cellular Concept

•Introduction
•Frequency Reuse
•Hand Off
•Interference & System Capacity
•Improving coverage & capacity in cellular system

By Mr. Deshbhratar A. S.
 Introduction to Cellular Systems
• Solves the problem of spectral congestion and user capacity.
• Offer very high capacity in a limited spectrum without major
technological changes.
• Reuse of radio channel in different cells.
• Enable a fix number of channels to serve an arbitrarily large number of
users by reusing the channel throughout the coverage region.

Mr. Deshbhratar A. S. 2
 Frequency Reuse
• Each cellular base station is allocated a group of radio channels within
a small geographic area called a cell.
• Neighboring cells are assigned different channel groups.
• By limiting the coverage area to within the boundary of the cell, the
channel groups may be reused to cover different cells.
• Keep interference levels within tolerable limits.
• Frequency reuse or frequency planning

•seven groups of channel from A to G

•footprint of a cell - actual radio coverage
•omni-directional antenna v.s. directional
antenna

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• Consider a cellular system which has a total of S duplex channels.
• Each cell is allocated a group of k channels, k  S .
• The S channels are divided among N cells.
• The total number of available radio channels
S  kN
• The N cells which use the complete set of channels is called cluster.
• The cluster can be repeated M times within the system. The total
number of channels, C, is used as a measure of capacity
C  MkN  MS
• The capacity is directly proportional to the number of replication M.
• The cluster size, N, is typically equal to 4, 7, or 12.
• Small N is desirable to maximize capacity.
• The frequency reuse factor is given by 1 / N

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Example of Frequency Reuse

Cells using the same frequencies

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 Tessellation

• Some group of small regions tessellate a large region

if they over the large region without any gaps or
overlaps.

• There are only three regular polygons that tessellate

any given region.

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 Tessellation (Cont’d)
• Three regular polygons that always tessellate:
– Equilateral triangle
– Square
– Regular Hexagon

Triangles
Squares
Mr. Deshbhratar A. S.
Hexagons 7
 Circular Coverage Areas
• Original cellular system was developed assuming base
station antennas are omnidirectional, i.e., they transmit in
all directions equally. Users located outside
some distance to the
base station receive
weak signals.

Result: base station has

circular coverage area.

Mr. Deshbhratar A. S. 8
 Circles Don’t Tessellate

• Thus, ideally base stations have identical, circular

coverage areas.
• Problem: Circles do not tessellate.

• The most circular of the regular polygons that

tessellate is the hexagon.
• Thus, early researchers started using hexagons to
represent the coverage area of a base station, i.e., a
cell.
Mr. Deshbhratar A. S. 9
 Thus the Name Cellular

• With hexagonal coverage area, a cellular network is

drawn as:

Base
Station

• Since the network resembles cells from a honeycomb,

the name cellular was used to describe the resulting
mobile telephone network.
Mr. Deshbhratar A. S. 10
• Hexagonal geometry has
– exactly six equidistance neighbors
– the lines joining the centers of any cell and each of its neighbors are
separated by multiples of 60 degrees.
• Only certain cluster sizes and cell layout are possible.
• The number of cells per cluster, N, can only have values which satisfy
N  i 2  ij  j 2
• Co-channel neighbors of a particular cell, ex, i=3 and j=2.

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 Cluster size of 7

• In frequency reuse, a group of local cells use different

frequencies to transmit/receive signals in their cell.
• This group of local cells is referred to as a cluster.
• Assume a cluster size of 7. This means that the total
395 voice channels are divided into groups of seven.
• Thus, each cell has about 56 voice channels. This is
the most number of users that can be supported in a
cell, i.e., roughly 10 square miles in normal
environments.
• This may/may not be sufficient based on the
distribution of users.

Mr. Deshbhratar A. S. 12
 Clustersize of 7 (Cont’d)

• To see what a system with clustersize of 7 looks like,

color a cell with color 1.
• This cell (if drawn as a hexagon) has 6 neighbors. Color
each of the seven neighbors using a different color (also
different from each other).
• Now repeat this rule to get the overall “reuse pattern.”

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Clustersize of 7, Reuse Pattern

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 What if we had a smaller cluster?

• Now consider a system with a cluster of 4.

• Then the number of voice channels per cell is 395/4,

which is roughly 98.

• Thus, in theory, we can hold more users per cell if this

were true.

• But there is a problem with a clustersize.

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 Problem with Smaller Clustersize

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Interfering cells are closer by when clustersize is smaller.
 Problem with Smaller Clustersize (Cont’d)
• If interfering cells are closer, then the total
interference power will be larger.

• With higher interference power, the quality of the

speech signal will deteriorate.

• To reduce the interference power, we can make the

cells larger.

• With larger cell, the number of users covered per unit

area reduces. So, the gain (total number of users
supported) of a smaller clustersize is not as high as we
think.
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 Channel Assignment Strategies
• Frequency reuse scheme
– increases capacity
– minimize interference
• Channel assignment strategy
– fixed channel assignment
– dynamic channel assignment
• Fixed channel assignment
– each cell is allocated a predetermined set of voice channel
– any new call attempt can only be served by the unused channels
– the call will be blocked if all channels in that cell are occupied
• Dynamic channel assignment
– channels are not allocated to cells permanently.
– allocate channels based on request.
– reduce the likelihood of blocking, increase capacity.
Mr. Deshbhratar A. S. 18
 Handoff Strategies
• When a mobile moves into a different cell while a conversation is in
progress, the MSC automatically transfers the call to a new channel
belonging to the new base station.
• Handoff operation
– identifying a new base station
– re-allocating the voice and control channels with the new base station.
• Handoff Threshold
– Minimum usable signal for acceptable voice quality (-90dBm to -100dBm)
– Handoff margin   Pr ,handoff  Pr ,minimumusablecannot be too large or too
small.
– If  is too large, unnecessary handoffs burden the MSC
– If  is too small, there may be insufficient time to complete handoff
before a call is lost.

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Fig. Illustration of a Handoff scenario at Cell boundary
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• Handoff must ensure that the drop in the measured signal is not due to
momentary fading and that the mobile is actually moving away from
the serving base station.
• Running average measurement of signal strength should be optimized
so that unnecessary handoffs are avoided.
– Depends on the speed at which the vehicle is moving.
– Steep short term average -> the hand off should be made quickly
– The speed can be estimated from the statistics of the received short-term
fading signal at the base station
• Dwell time: the time over which a call may be maintained within a cell
without handoff.
• Dwell time depends on
– propagation
– interference
– distance
– speed

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• Handoff measurement
– In first generation analog cellular systems, signal strength measurements
are made by the base station and supervised by the MSC.
– In second generation systems (TDMA), handoff decisions are mobile
assisted, called mobile assisted handoff (MAHO)
• Intersystem handoff: If a mobile moves from one cellular system to a
different cellular system controlled by a different MSC.
• Handoff requests is much important than handling a new call.

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 Practical Handoff Consideration

• Different type of users

– High speed users need frequent handoff during a call.
– Low speed users may never need a handoff during a call.
• Microcells to provide capacity, the MSC can become burdened if high
speed users are constantly being passed between very small cells.
• Minimize handoff intervention
– handle the simultaneous traffic of high speed and low speed users.
• Large and small cells can be located at a single location (umbrella cell)
– different antenna height
– different power level
• Cell dragging problem: pedestrian users provide a very strong signal to
the base station
– The user may travel deep within a neighboring cell
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Fig. The Umbrella Cell Approach

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• Handoff for first generation analog cellular systems
– 10 secs handoff time
–  is in the order of 6 dB to 12 dB
• Handoff for second generation cellular systems, e.g., GSM
– 1 to 2 seconds handoff time
– mobile assists handoff
–  is in the order of 0 dB to 6 dB
– Handoff decisions based on signal strength, co-channel interference, and
adjacent channel interference.
• IS-95 CDMA spread spectrum cellular system
– Mobiles share the channel in every cell.
– No physical change of channel during handoff
– MSC decides the base station with the best receiving signal as the service
station

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 Interference and System Capacity
• Sources of interference
– another mobile in the same cell
– a call in progress in the neighboring cell
– other base stations operating in the same frequency band
– noncellular system leaks energy into the cellular frequency band
• Two major cellular interference
– co-channel interference
– adjacent channel interference

Mr. Deshbhratar A. S. 26
Co-channel Interference and System Capacity

• Frequency reuse - there are several cells that use the same set of
frequencies
– co-channel cells
– co-channel interference
• To reduce co-channel interference, co-channel cell must be separated
by a minimum distance.
• When the size of the cell is approximately the same
– co-channel interference is independent of the transmitted power
– co-channel interference is a function of
• R: Radius of the cell
• D: distance to the center of the nearest co-channel cell
• Increasing the ratio Q=D/R, the interference is reduced.
• Q is called the co-channel reuse ratio

Mr. Deshbhratar A. S. 27
• For a hexagonal geometry
D
Q  3N
R

• A small value of Q provides large capacity

• A large value of Q improves the transmission quality - smaller level of
co-channel interference
• A tradeoff must be made between these two objectives

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• Let i0 be the number of co-channel interfering cells. The signal-to-
interference ratio (SIR) for a mobile receiver can be expressed as
S S
 i0
I
I
i 1
i

S: the desired signal power

I i : interference power caused by the ith interfering co-channel cell base
station
• The average received power at a distance d from the transmitting
antenna is approximated by
n
d  close-in reference point
Pr  P0  
 d0  d0
or
 d  P0 :measued power
Pr (dBm)  P0 (dBm)  10n log  TX

 d0 
n is the path loss exponent which ranges between 2 and 4.
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 • When the transmission power of each base station is equal, SIR for a
mobile can be approximated as
S Rn
 i0
I
 i
 D
i 1
n

• Consider only the first layer of interfering cells

S ( D / R)n
 
 3N n

i0  6
I i0 i0

• Example: AMPS requires that SIR be

greater than 18dB
– N should be at least 6.49 for n=4.
– Minimum cluster size is 7

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• For hexagonal geometry with 7-cell cluster, with the mobile unit being
at the cell boundary, the signal-to-interference ratio for the worst case
can be approximated as

S R 4

I 2( D  R)4  ( D  R / 2) 4  ( D  R / 2)4  ( D  R) 4  D 4

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 Adjacent Channel Interference
• Adjacent channel interference: interference from adjacent in frequency
to the desired signal.
– Imperfect receiver filters allow nearby frequencies to leak into the
passband
– Performance degrade seriously due to near-far effect.
receiving filter
response

signal on adjacent channel signal on adjacent channel

desired signal

FILTER
interference
interference desired signal

Mr. Deshbhratar A. S. 32
• Adjacent channel interference can be minimized through careful
filtering and channel assignment.
• Keep the frequency separation between each channel in a given cell as
large as possible
• A channel separation greater than six is needed to bring the adjacent
channel interference to an acceptable level.

Mr. Deshbhratar A. S. 33
Power Control for Reducing Interference

• Ensure each mobile transmits the smallest power necessary to maintain

a good quality link on the reverse channel
– long battery life
– increase SIR
– solve the near-far problem

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Key Definitions for Trunked Radio

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 Trunking and Grade of Service
• Erlangs: One Erlangs represents the amount of traffic density carried
by a channel that is completely occupied.
– Ex: A radio channel that is occupied for 30 minutes during an hour carries
0.5 Erlangs of traffic.
• Grade of Service (GOS): The likelihood that a call is blocked.
• Each user generates a traffic intensity of Au Erlangs given by
Au  H
H: average duration of a call.
 : average number of call requests per unit time
• For a system containing U users and an unspecified number of
channels, the total offered traffic intensity A, is given by
A  UAu
• For C channel trunking system, the traffic intensity, Ac is given as
Ac  UAu / C
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Erlang B Trunking GOS

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Improving Capacity in Cellular Systems
• Methods for improving capacity in cellular systems
– Cell Splitting: subdividing a congested cell into smaller cells.
– Sectoring: directional antennas to control the interference and frequency
reuse.
– Coverage zone : Distributing the coverage of a cell and extends the cell
boundary to hard-to-reach place.

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 Cell Splitting
• Split congested cell into smaller cells.
– Preserve frequency reuse plan.
– Reduce transmission power.

Reduce R to R/2
microcell

39
Mr. Deshbhratar A. S.
Illustration of cell splitting within a 3 km by 3 km square

Mr. Deshbhratar A. S. 40
• Transmission power reduction from Pt1 to Pt 2
• Examining the receiving power at the new and old cell boundary
Pr [at old cell boundary]  Pt1R  n
Pr [at new cell boundary ]  Pt 2 ( R / 2) n

• If we take n = 4 and set the received power equal to each other

Pt1
Pt 2 
16
• The transmit power must be reduced by 12 dB in order to fill in the
original coverage area.
• Problem: if only part of the cells are splited
– Different cell sizes will exist simultaneously
• Handoff issues - high speed and low speed traffic can be
simultaneously accommodated

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 Sectoring
• Decrease the co-channel interference and keep the cell radius R
unchanged
– Replacing single omni-directional antenna by several directional antennas
– Radiating within a specified sector

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 • Interference Reduction

position of the mobile

interference cells

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 Microcell Zone Concept
• Antennas are placed at the outer edges of the cell
• Any channel may be assigned to any zone by the base station
• Mobile is served by the zone with the strongest signal.

• Handoff within a cell

– No channel re-
assignment
– Switch the channel to a
different zone site
• Reduce interference
– Low power transmitters
are employed

Mr. Deshbhratar A. S. 44
Zone Cell Concept

Mr. Deshbhratar A. S. 45
 THE END

Reference: Wireless Communications Principles & Practice 2/E

-Theodore S. Rappaport
PHI Publications
(Page No. 57 – 93)

Mr. Deshbhratar A. S. Lecturer in Institute of Technology, Junnar

(Maharashtra)